A perfect blend of Intelligence and Stupidity

Drum beats are back again in the streets. Dinagyang fever is right around the corner as the year begins. But is Dinagyang festival just all about the drums, costumes and merry makings?

During the fourth weekend of January, Dinagyang festival is celebrated in order to give tribute to the Christianization of the natives and show respect to Sto. Niño (Holy Child Jesus). It is a three-day event, the highlight of which is the 3rd day, the Ati-ati contest. It is a colorful parade of costumes staging the Sto. Niño as the object of offerings and prayers. “Viva Señor Sto. Niño” is heard amidst the beating of the drums during the competition. This is an evidence of the Ilonggos’ great devotion to the child Jesus who is believed to be miraculous during famine and drought.

Dinagyang is not just any cultural event that wowed the whole country and the world, it is also considered as a religious evangelization.

Dinagyang comes from the Hiligaynon (TRIVIA: we call the people ILONGGO and the dialect is HILIGAYNON) word dagyang meaning make happy. The festival was formerly called Ati-atihan similar of the festival in Kalibo. According to history, it started when a replica of the image of Señor Sto. Niño was brought from Cebu to Iloilo (San Jose Parish in Libertad). From then on, Ilonggos became devotees and proclaimed the 4th Sunday of January as His feast day since year 1968. The annual celebration is concluded by a nine-day Novena, an Ati-Ati contest and a fluvial procession on the last day.

It was the late Pacifico Sumagpao Sudario, a radio broadcaster who first used to name the festival when it commenced in 1977, to differentiate it from Kalibo’s Ati-Atihan.

The image of Sto. Niño is placed on a decorative boat in a fluvial procession early in the morning. It starts from the mouth of the Iloilo River at Fort San Pedro to the Iloilo Provincial Capitol found on the bank of the Iloilo River. The image is met by the Hermano-Hermana mayor devotees as well as the contesting tribes. The procession ends at San Jose Church where a high mass is celebrated. Opening ceremonies and contest proper follows shortly after the mass.

Dinagyang proved to be one of the best festivals in the country when it won Best Festival for a couple of years in a row.

Every year, tourist swarms the city to see Iloilo’s Finest and the Nation’s best: Dinagyang Festival.

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I’ve been to cebu for Sinulog. but still for me Dinagyang Festival of Iloilo is more attractive, lively, more skillful, and well choreo compare to sinulog , it is really a real quality of festival and it is worth as the Best Festival of the Philippines, I’ve seen it first in Iloilo the use of huge water drums in Dinagyang(Used as actual drums), then the next year , I can saw it on cebu as well as many festivals around the country!. No argument , Sinulog Choreography is pure magic , and there is arts and everything. But if you are the festival goer looking to enjoy the festival not only by watching , Dinagyang is for you , street parties are not classier than cebu , but still its worth it. Dinagyang is festival is more lively than any other festivals in the Philippines.

The Historic Town of Vigan was inscribed in the UNESCO World Heritage List in 1999. UNESCO inscribed Vigan in the World Heritage List because it “represents a unique fusion of Asian building design and construction with European colonial architecture and planning,” and “is an exceptionally intact and well preserved example of a European trading town in East and South-East Asia.”

The idea of using the first day of January to mark the beginning of the new year dates back to time of Julius Caesar, five decades before the birth of Jesus.

Many calendars existed before Caesar created the Julian calendar in 46 B.C., but his marked Jan. 1 as the official start of the new year. That was the day that the two consuls, the highest elected political officials in Rome, took office to start serving their year-long terms.

Even as the Julian calendar spread in popularity, some areas continued to use dates in March and September as New Year’s Day. In Medieval Europe, for example, the new-year celebration was viewed as pagan, so the holiday was moved around to more agreeable dates, including Dec. 25, the day that the Christian Church used to mark the birth of Jesus, and March 25, the Feast of the Annunciation.

During the 1570s, Pope Gregory put the Gregorian calendar into effect, restoring Jan. 1 as the first day of the new year. This change in tradition wasn’t officially implemented by England until 1752. Up until then, England and the American colonies had celebrated the new year on March 25.

If America hadn’t finally accepted the new calendar, we’d be raising our champagne glasses and toasting to a new year … after Saint Patrick’s Day.

I remembered during high school days . We have made a entry for a science fair, Our Entry was a rocket powered by Butane Alcohol. Same Principle as our modified rocket for the science fair !

This modified canon is Powered by butane alcohol(some uses other fuel that I’m not familiar of) and Lighter igniter for its ignition ! The BOGA is fueled by Butane Alcohol using a spray(empty spraynet bottles or other)

Then Few Years ago. ! a certain Modified canon has been invented or discovered – or re modified by Filipino’s

And the result was this modified canon for New Years Celebration.
It is called “BOGA” in local terms. Some called it PVC canon(made my cut PVC pipes) others also made BOGA using tin Cans fixed together

There’s a reason that Christmas is the busiest holiday season for the U.S. Postal Service – everyone is mailing out their holiday greeting cards. But from where did this tradition originate?

People have been sending each other letters and cards wishing each other well and marking special occasions since mail carriers rode stallions and carried swords, but specifically, the Christmas card custom began in early 19th-century England.

During that time, it was common for British students to send their parents progress reports of sorts as Christmas approached. They boasted about their good grades and showed off their penmanship, composition and artwork, according to “The Complete Christmas Book” (F. Watts, Inc., 1958). The students hoped that the joyful, flashy letters would entice parents to give them presents and money as rewards for the year’s efforts.

These letters served as an early combination of today’s bragging Christmas newsletters (“This year we accomplished this and that…”) and pleading letters to Santa (“I’ve been good this year! Give me the presents I want!”). But Christmas cards only began to truly come into fashion after they began to be printed and marketed as such.

“In 1839, shortly after the introduction of the penny post in England, the true Christmas card tradition of sending cards to friends and relatives developed,” according to “Holiday Folklore, Phobias, and Fun.” “One thousand copies of the card designed for Sir Henry Cole were sold. Usually regarded as the first of its kind, it was made by J.C. Horsley, a member of the Royal Academy.”

Billions of Horsley’s card designs were sent out in the years that followed, and reprints of his famous holiday greeting cards can still be bought to this day.